Telecommunications group Telkom’s insistence on bundling its ADSL data service with a compulsory voice service could mean contravention of SA’s new Consumer Protection Act (CPA), the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA) said on Monday.
ISPA general manager, Ant Brooks said that the CPA had clear prescriptions against bundling goods and services in a manner that forced consumers to enter into agreements or transactions they did not require as a condition of buying a certain product or service. ISPA said that the Act saw such practices as a limitation on the consumer’s right to choose suppliers for each service. According to the Act, compulsory bundling of services was forbidden unless the supplier could prove that it offered economic benefits and convenience to the consumer that outweighed the drawbacks of limiting choice.
According to the industry body, Telkom’s ADSL lines were not available in ‘naked’ DSL options, though one could purchase a voice service without DSL. ISPA said it believed that forcing a client to take a voice product and pay a rental fee for a voice line when he or she simply wanted a data line was a form of product bundling that was contrary to the CPA. Telkom would be hard pressed to prove that the bundling of a voice service and ADSL line offered economic benefits or convenience to the subscriber, as many subscribers either wanted the option of using an alternative voice service provider or did not want a voice service at all, said Brooks. "Many users regard the voice line rental fee as a ‘Telkom tax’. In many cases, the voice service is not wanted yet consumers are forced to pay for it if they want an ADSL line," said Brooks. "Telkom is constraining consumer choice with this practice."
Source: Business Day
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